The Best Modern Season Of Survivor Isn't Available On Streaming — Here's Why

Back in 2020, when we were all stuck inside due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its multiple quarantines, I got really into "Survivor" for the second time in my life. (This was a pretty common phenomenon during this time, honestly.) I watched it when I was younger — I may or may not have created a fan site dedicated to "Pearl Islands" contestant Rupert Boneham, which is, thankfully, lost to time — and ended up losing interest at some point, but during lengthy quarantines and periods of social distancing, "Survivor" was the perfect binge-watch. The seasons all feel familiar but different thanks to its various casts, the social gameplay can be fascinating with the right players, and there's a certain thrill in watching people perform crazy endurance challenges on a remote beach while you're sitting on your couch, Monday morning quarterbacking their performance and eating Cheezit Grooves right out of the box. During this time, I watched some of the show's best-ever seasons: "Micronesia," "Heroes vs. Villains," "David vs. Goliath" (which features "The White Lotus" creator Mike White), and "Cagayan," just to name a few of the greats. After years of forgetting about "Survivor," my fire for the show was rekindled.

Then I watched what host Jeff Probst calls the "new era," and wow. What a disappointment.

I'll get into why the new era is so frustrating shortly, but first, let me assure you that there is a recent and excellent season of "Survivor" featuring some of your favorite players from the American version's very best seasons. There's one problem: it's an Australian version of "Survivor," so unless you use a VPN or search for bootleg versions on YouTube, you're out of luck, as the show only aired on Australia's Network 10. That's definitely bad news for fans of Cirie Fields and Parvati Shallow, two straight-up "Survivor" legends who compete on this show, "Survivor: Australia V The World" (Shallow, Fields, and two-time U.S. winner Tony Vlachos all show up for this international showdown). So what makes "Survivor: Australia V The World" so much better than the "new era" in America?

On the surface, "Survivor" is a simple game. Originally, you'd split into two (sometimes three, sometimes four) tribes upon arriving in an exotic and remote location, and from there, the mission is simple: outwit, outplay, and outlast. Win immunity challenges with your tribe to avoid voting one of your own out at tribal council, and once the tribes merge as they're winnowed down, you win those challenges for yourself if you can. Make it to the end, convince a jury of people you screwed over to give you the title, and you'll be crowned Sole Survivor and win $1 million. It sounds easy, but as classic seasons of "Survivor" prove, it's anything but; not only do you have to win challenges and survive in the game, but you also have to avoid blindsides, make and break alliances, and plot shrewdly to even make it to the final tribal council.

Things have changed. All the seasons shoot in Fiji now, the number of days was reduced from 39 to 27 in the wake of COVID, and a regular player's gameplay on "Survivor" is now constantly interrupted by ludicrous, stupid twists endemic of this "new era." Instead of finding hidden immunity idols, players are stuck with "Beware" challenges, where they risk losing their vote (or other bad outcomes) if they even open a hidden envelope, and all this does is ruin the fun of people hunting for those hidden idols in the first place. There's a game of chance you can play during tribal councils called "Shot in the Dark," and not only does it never work in anyone's favor, but it's also just a boring addition to the game that adds absolutely nothing. 

Instead of relying on the essential charm of "Survivor" to carry each season, host and executive producer Jeff Probst keeps adding convoluted aspects to the "new era" of "Survivor," presumably in an attempt to make it more interesting. This isn't helped by the fact that, in "new era" seasons featuring brand new players, they're all hyper-aware that they're on "Survivor" and spend more time talking about "making moves" than actually, you know, making them. If you're a "Survivor" fan who's found all of this really frustrating, I highly recommend "Survivor: Australia V The World" if you can track it down, because it dispenses with all of this nonsense.

Besides the reintroduction of "Survivor" greats Parvati Shallow, Tony Vlachos, and Cirie Fields in "Australia V The World," this game is a smart and seemingly impeccable season in the modern "Survivor" canon for one simple reason: it relies on fantastic players and their excellent gameplay instead of silly gimmicks. Shallow, in particular, is a marvel to watch throughout this season; in the very first episode, some South African player who's presumably very popular in their "Survivor" fandom (Robert "Rob" Bentele) tries to oust Shallow, only for her to slyly turn on him and convince nearly everybody on the "World" tribe to vote him out instead. (They do.) Obviously, a player like Shallow, who goes on to win "Survivor: Australia V The World" — marking her second overall win in "Survivor" history as she joins Vlachos and Sandra Diaz-Twine, the only other players to ever win twice — is a once-in-a-lifetime "Survivor" contestant. We can't expect every modern player to be as good as her. I do wish, though, they'd quit yapping about how they're "on 'Survivor!'" and how they've got to "make a move" without a clear idea of what that "move" might be, and there's an unbelievably refreshing lack of that on "Survivor: Australia V The World."

Ultimately, though, the reason for this season's success is that it goes back to basics. Some challenges, like a particularly vile one where players are trapped underneath a grate that's half underwater and are tasked with staying there for as long as possible before they start to almost drown, are lifted directly from American "Survivor," but there's no stupid twist to go with it. It's just a really good, albeit terrifying, endurance challenge. The players connive and plot until Shallow comes out on top, and throughout just ten episodes, I had so much more fun watching "Survivor: Australia V The World" than I did while I was watching any of the "new era" seasons of "Survivor." Hopefully, "Survivor: Australia V The World" lands on an American streamer soon, and the original "Survivor," which is streaming on Paramount+, learns some lessons from its success.